Code for America

Code for America is a non-partisan, non-political 501(c)(3)organization founded in 2009 to address the widening gap between the public and private sectors in their effective use of technology and design. The organization began by enlisting technology and design professionals to work with city governments in the United States in order to build open-source applications and promote openness, participation, and efficiency in government, and has grown into a cross-sector network of practitioners of civic innovation and a platform for "civic hacking."[2]

Through five programs, Code for America helps government work more like the Internet. The largest program by numbers is the Brigade, which comprises local groups of civic hackers and other community volunteers who meet regularly to support the technology, design, and open data efforts of their local governments. Over 5,000 people in the US are involved in a Code for America Brigade. Through the Fellowship program, small teams of developers and designers work with a city, county or state government for a year, building open source apps and helping spread awareness of how contemporary technology works among the government workforce and leadership. Through the Accelerator, Code for America provides seed funding, office space, and mentorship to civic startups. Code for America also runs a Peer Network for innovators in local government. Lastly, Code for All (part of Code for America) organizes similar efforts outside the US, particularly Brigades and fellowship programs in countries around the world.[3]

The Washington Post described Code for America as "the technology world’s equivalent of the Peace Corps or Teach for America." The article goes on to say, "They bring fresh blood to the solution process, deliver agile coding and software development skills, and frequently offer new perspectives on the latest technology — something that is often sorely lacking from municipal government IT programs. This is a win-win for cities that need help and for technologists that want to give back and contribute to lower government costs and the delivery of improved government service." [4]

The New York Times described Code for America as “a new nonprofit project... which aims to import the efficiency of the Web into government infrastructures” and “[tries] to make working in government fun and creative.” [5]

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In 2009, founder Jennifer Pahlka was working with O'Reilly Media at the Gov 2.0 Summit in Washington, DC. A conversation with Andrew Greenhill, the Mayor’s Chief of Staff of the City of Tucson, sparked the initial idea for Code for America, when he said “You need to pay attention to the local level because cities are in major crisis. Revenues are down, costs are up -- if we don't change how cities work, they're going to fail."[6] The two began discussing plans for a program that eventually became Code for America, “a one-year fellowship recruiting developers to work for city government.”[6] With support from web entrepreneur Leonard Lin, Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media, and technologist Clay A. Johnson, among others, the organization was launched in September 2009.[6]

According to their website, “Code for America believes that government can work for the people, by the people, in the 21st century. We are a 501(c)3 non-profit that helps residents and governments harness technology to solve community problems. Here's how: • We encourage and empower residents to take an active role in their community. • We facilitate collaboration between government staff and foster forward-thinking approaches to solving city problems. • We support civic-minded entrepreneurs and startups." [3]

Code for America connects city governments and web professionals through the Code for America Fellowship program.[7]

The first year of the fellowship program began in January 2011. Twenty fellows were selected from 360 applicants, resulting in a 5.6% acceptance rate.[8]Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Seattle were the four cities selected to participate in the 2011 program.[9]

On January 4, 2012 Code for America began its second year fellowship program with 26 fellows and eight cities: Austin, Chicago, Detroit, Honolulu, Macon, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Santa Cruz.[10]

The Civic Commons project was launched in September 2010 after the Washington, DC project fell through due to a change in administration. Code for America Commons, as it is now called, is a coordinated effort between Code for America, OpenPlans, and the District of Columbia's Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO). The project focuses on reducing public IT costs by helping government entities share code and best practices.[11][12] In March 2011, Code for America Commons helped make the Federal IT dashboard freely available to all levels of government, thereby providing local governments with tools to monitor project effectiveness and evaluate the allocation of resources.[13]

In December 2011 Code for America announced the receipt of a $1.5 million grant from Google and the formation of two new programs: Accelerator and Brigade.[14] The Code for America Brigades are local groups of volunteers who build civic apps on open data in cities around the world.

In 2011, CFA coders developed an "Adopt a Hydrant" website, so that volunteers in Boston can sign up to shovel out fire hydrants after storms. The system has also been implemented in Providence, Rhode Island, Anchorage, Alaska, and Chicago. Honolulu has created a similar website, "Adopt-A-Siren", for its tsunami sirens.[15]